In this conversation, Craig and Jonathan reflect on different flavours of crisis, liberal delusion, ideological externalities, relational interiority, and much more.
Craig Murphy and Jonathan Rowson join us for a dialogue on global politics and the metacrisis, using as a springboard for this conversation the essay ‘Prefixing the World: Why the polycrisis is a permacrisis, which is actually a metacrisis, which is not really a crisis at all’, published by Jonathan on his Substack blog in late 2023. Craig recently participated in a panel on Crisis in Global Governance at the International Studies Association annual meeting where he engaged with Jonathan’s work in his remarks, seeing certain affinities between Jonathan’s claim that all global problems of the moment are connected to a single source, a single metacrisis and Craig’s own insights into the importance of grappling with the possible interconnections across global problems if problem solvers are going to develop the kind of complex solidarity that is likely to be essential to any adequate response to the daunting challenges of our times. We were honoured to be able to bring these two distinguished scholars and authors together for a far-reaching and deeply meaningful conversation.
![Craig Murphy](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-governance/sites/global_governance/files/styles/small_image/public/murphy-craig-profile_pic_180x200.jpg?itok=jGIUU7eI)
![Jonathan Rowson](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-governance/sites/global_governance/files/styles/small_image/public/jonathan-rowson_profile-pic_180x200.jpg?itok=5rV8KOpe)
Craig’s official website profile can be found here.
Jonathan’s profile can be found on the Perspectiva website.
He tweets @Jonathan_Rowson
His essays can also be read at Substack.
We discussed:
Ursula Le Guin, ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, 1973.
Geoff Mann, ‘It Was Not Supposed to End This Way’, August 2019.
See our podcast conversation Geoff Mann here.
Craig Murphy, ‘Leadership, Global Governance, and Peace’, November 2018.
Craig Murphy, ‘Engineering Rules’, 2024.
Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry of the Future.
Jonathan Rowson, ‘Prefixing the World,’ September 2023.
Jonathan Rowson, ‘Tasting the Pickle: ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation’, February 2021.
Adam Tooze, ‘Welcome to the world of the polycrisis’, Financial Times, 28 October 2022.